OTTAWA — A new commander took charge of the Canadian Army Thursday, the latest switch in what has become a wholesale changing-of-the-guard for Canada‘s military leadership.

Following a colourful ceremony under a hot sun on Parliament Hill, Lt.-Gen. Marquis Hainse promised to maintain the army’s capabilities despite looming budget cuts and questions about the land force’s role and identity in the post-Afghanistan era.

“It’s a great job that I’m facing right now,” he said. “It’s to be able to have the Canadian Army continue to deliver efficiencies, to be able to deliver combat readiness, and to deliver great soldiers to be able to answer the call of the government.”

That may be easier said than done if comments made by his predecessor Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin are any indication.

In December, Devlin warned a Senate committee that there was little fat left to trim in the army and that a 22 per cent reduction in the army’s baseline budget was having a negative impact on training and infrastructure.

He repeated those warnings in an interview last week in which he worried the lessons learned in Afghanistan and paid for with “blood” were in danger of becoming lost.

Hainse, who until recently was deputy commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, said he brings “a new perspective on army matters,” and that the challenges facing Canada’s army and military are no different from those in other countries around the world.

“We all have to look at how we do things,” he said. “How do we think better to find efficiencies to be in line with the fiscally constrained environment?

“And this is my job, to make sure we are not going to do less with less, that we are not going to do more with less, that we are going to do what it takes to keep that professional capability.”

Hainse’s arrival as the army’s top soldier came only days after a cabinet shuffle in which long-time defence minister Peter MacKay switched jobs with justice minister Rob Nicholson.

Nicholson is expected to wield the hatchet and implement the prime minister’s demand for “more teeth and less tail” as National Defence works to cut between $1.1 billion and $2.5 billion by 2015 in the post-Afghanistan era.